Vinny Lingham, CEO of Blockchain Identity Startup, CivicKey has said that the world may be a safer place when people are in control of their identity information.

“Blockchain ID’s effectively give us a way of digitising artefacts of the past, such as passports and drivers licenses and moving them from the physical world where they can be easily forged to the digital world of blockchain where that is virtually impossible.”, Lingham claimed.

For the time being, Civickey`s Blockchain ID is available only in the USA. However, Lingham said it would soon spread the world.

“We are launching verified accounts for the USA only and basic accounts worldwide on May 23rd at Consensus in New York. We will add additional countries for verification on a regular basis, and based on demand.”, he commented.

While there have been contrasting views regarding the project, Lingham thinks that governments are generally supportive.

“Governments have been very supportive of what we are doing – creating secure methods for citizens to verify and transfer identity information, which they are in control of. Our platform works globally, and we don’t store any personal information on our servers – it’s all stored on the user device.”, he explained.

Vinny Lingham`s early years in South Africa inspired him to start the project.

“I grew up in South Africa, during Apartheid and I was a witness to how “democracy” was undemocratic in that black (and “non-white” people such as myself) were excluded from the economy until Nelson Mandela freed South Africa from these shackles.”, he said.

“There are still millions of people in South Africa and the rest of the world, without a form of identity and who can’t participate in the democratic process. If we can give everyone in the world the ability to control and own their identity information, then I think the world will become a better place.”, he told cryptocoinnews.com.